Baseball. Soccer. Football. When you think of the pantheon of sports that translate well to video games, competitive frisbee probably isn’t on that list. After all, how much fun can you have watching two people throw a plastic disc back and forth? Surprisingly, the answer is “a lot.”

Windjammer is a one-on-one frisbee game that places two competitors on a field, a net between them, and goals behind each competitor. The goals are divided into segments, with two segments worth one point and the harder to hit segment worth three points. The competitors throw the frisbee back and forth, with each subsequent throw causing the little plastic disc to move faster. While you can play it safe and stick to lazily throwing the frisbee around, you won’t be scoring any points this way. Because Windjammers is a Japanese game, every character has a ridiculous special move to help them out. One character will throw the frisbee at the wall, where it will erupt into a torrent of sparks and make a beeline for the goal. Another will throw the frisbee with such force that anyone in it’s path will be knocked backwards into the net, netting the character a point. It’s absolutely ridiculous to see brightly colored characters use their frisbee to go Super Saiyan, but it makes every match exciting and fun.

Windjammers is set at a competition of the best frisbee players in the world, so the cast is composed of multi-national competitors. Because Windjammers was developed in the early 90’s, every character looks absolutely ridiculous, clad in hot pinks, eye seering neon greens, bike shorts, and chunky sunglasses. These fashion abominations all play differently, with every character having a unique special move, various stats, and a ranking from Easy to Hard. Easy characters tend to be balanced, being pretty good at just about everything. Medium characters have higher ranking in certain areas, making them suffer in others. Hard characters have almost all of their stat points in one category, making them horrible in everything else. But if you want a character that can throw incredibly hard or move at lightning fast speeds, Medium and Hard characters are your best option.

Once you’ve selected your character, it’s time to pick a stage. Every stage is different, and can drastically affect the flow of the match. A small stage will lead to frantic back-and-forth exchanges, whereas a bigger stage gives you room to move and think of your next step. Like any crazy sports game worth it’s salt, there are also gimmick stages that affect the gameplay in certain ways, such as an ice stage that makes it impossible to stay rooted to a spot.

Let’s be real here; Windjammers is basically a gussied up Pong. You throw the frisbee back and forth, trying to get it past the other player and score a point. But because the gameplay is so simple, it’s easy to pick up and play, making it a perfect game to play with friends. The game didn’t receive much attention when it was released for the Neo-Geo way back in 1994, but Windjammers has gone on to become a cult classic. The game ended up being adapted for GGPO (Good Game, Peace Out), an online video game platform that allows fans of classic Neo-Geo and Capcom arcade games to play with other fans across the world. On GGPO, Windjammers has become a surprise sensation, with dozens of people competing in round robin competitions daily.

While it’s next to impossible to get your hands on a Neo-Geo copy of Windjammers these days, the ROM can easily be found on many websites. So do yourself a favor and grab a Neo-Geo emulator and Windjammers and play the greatest (and possibly only) frisbee game of all time.

There was a time when Journey was known for more than just writing songs that drunk assholes love to sing at karaoke bars. In fact, after the release of their albums Escape and Frontiers, they had managed to become one of the biggest bands in the world. Gearing up for a massive tour to support the two albums, Journey settled on an unconventional way to promote the tour: by teaming up with Midway to release an arcade game starring the bad. Naturally titled Journey, the game tasks players with stepping into the shoes of the members of Journey, guiding them through different planets (how did they get into space? They’re Journey, that’s how) as they collect their various instruments. Once all of the instruments have been collected, the band will then put on a show as terrible digitized versions of their hit songs are piped through the speakers. To ensure the band can focus on a-rockin’, you must play as their trusty bouncer, who is entrusted with keeping screaming groupies away from the stage. Should a groupie sneak by you, one of the band members will lose an instrument, and you must journey back into space to retrieve the instrument.

The game is universally regarded as being awful, but has become an interesting footnote in the history of the band.

4. Wu-Tang: Shaolin Stlye

Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style had an interesting path to becoming reality. Originally, a game called Thrill Kill was announced by EA; it was a four player fighting game where players duked it out as various disturbed individuals, such as a dominatrix nurse and a leather daddy midget on stilts. Because it was a different time, the game was met with moral outrage, which almost seems cute in hindsight. Faced with overwhelming pressure, Thrill Kill was scrapped, but EA found itself with a full game they couldn’t release. Refusing to cut it’s losses, EA decided to retool the game into something they could release. In a bizarre choice, the company decided to swap out the fetish characters with the beloved rap group the Wu-Tang Clan. Yes, now fans of the group could find out who would win in a fight between The RZA and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. When the members had punched each other enough, they could finish off their opponents with a grizzly finishing move similar to Mortal Kombat’s “Fatalities.” The game also featured a challenge mode called “Enter the 36 Chambers,” named after the groups classic album.

It was a weird game, with weird origins. But it’s gained a cult following amongst fans of the games, who have embraced the sheer weirdness of the game.

3. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

50 Cent was such a terrible rapper that he depended on the fact that he was shot several times to achieve fame and fortune. Playing off his ability to be shot and not die, Fiddy (as his friends called him) decided to star in a video game titled 50 Cent: Bulletproof. The game starred the sour faced rapper and the G-Unit, because who doesn’t wanna shoot generic bad guys as Tony Yayo? The game was poorly received, but managed to sell well, so a sequel was planned. But somewhere along the line of designing the game, the decision was made to make the next 50 Cent game batshit insane.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand found Fiddy and his crew playing a bangin’ show in the Middle East. In exchange for services rendered, 50 Cent is promised a diamond studded skull. But oh no! The skull is stolen by a paramilitary group, so it’s up to 50 and his pals to recover the skull. Yes, really. So players must shoot, stab, and destroy ancient monuments to retrieve the skull. It’s absolutely ridiculous, but Blood on the Sand managed to be a pretty fun game, especially when played with a friend. It’s loud and stupid, but that’s pretty much what you expect when you play a game called 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

2. Seikima II Akuma no Gyakushū!

Unless you’re a big fan of Japanese Kiss rip-off bands, chances are good you’ve never heard of Seikima II. Billing themselves as demons who have come to spread the gospel of Satan through heavy metal, the band managed to become somewhat popular during the 80’s, because the Japanese eat that kind of weird shit right up. To capitalize on their popularity, the band was asked to star in a game for the NES, or the Famicom as it was known in Japan. Fans expected a game that would make ample use of the band’s heavy metal stylings, but were instead treated to a generic Mario knock-off. Players could play as the various members of Seikima II, making their way through dark words populated by ghosts, bats, and ghost bats. The soundtrack was composed of bloopy versions of some of the bands popular songs, but Seikima II’s glam metal stylings didn’t translate well to the NES.

The game has the distinct pleasure of being the only NES platformer based on a metal band, but that couldn’t save it from being a pretty terrible game.

1. Revolution X

Someone somewhere, presumably in the throes of a week long coke binge, thought it was about time that someone made a rail shooter starring aging rock stars Aerosmith. Surprisingly, no one thought this was the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard, and Revolution X was eventually born. Set in a war torn future where music and happiness has been made illegal, the player must team up with Aerosmith to take on the evil New Order Nation and their terrible leader Olga. Utilizing an uzi that fires CD’s, the player mows down thousands of faceless soldiers, all in the in the name of rock ‘n roll. Along the way, the players gets to travel through seedy nightclubs, a decimated Hollywood, and even the Great Pyramids. After defeating Olga and her giant robot, the player is rewarded with a thank you message and a reminder that it’s time to “really get the party started,” before being treated to Aerosmith playing “Walk this Way.”

Revolution X is easily of the most 90’s games ever made, with excessive blood, repeated references to “Generation X,” and attempts to be edgy and cool. The game is monumentally stupid, but manages to be a fun rail shooter, and is always good for a laugh.

The Xbox One and PS4 were released to great fanfare, with critics hailing the consoles as promising glimpses of what is to come. With the release of these consoles, the current generation has heard the death knell, and is winding to a close. Sure, there will be games released for the current gen for a while, but eventually the march of time will overtake the PS3 and Xbox 360. Hell, the Wii has already thrown in the towel, with Nintendo putting all of it’s attention on the Wii U.

I’ve recently begun contemplating purchasing a PS4. Outside of Killer Instinct and Titanfall, there’s nothing I really want for the Xbox One, and the blu-ray player on the PS4 is definitely a nice bonus. But upon doing my research, I stumbled upon the fact that the PS4 does not feature backwards compatibility. Sure, there were rumors and murmurs that backwards compatibility could eventually be achieved via the cloud down the line, but this was all speculation. In the here and now, there’s no way to enjoy the previous generation of games on the PS4.

Deciding to check out the competition, I did some research on the Xbox One. Again, no backwards comparability. If you’re planning on selling your 360 to acquire an Xbox One, an entire generation games will be unplayable to you.

But this isn’t a recent development. When the 360 and PS3 initially released, they both touted backwards compatibility in some forms. The PS3 could play the entire library of PS2 games perfectly, while the 360 featured limited backwards compatibility with a list of Xbox games that Microsoft promised would continue to grow.

Eventually, though, the list stopped growing. Great Xbox games such as Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath and Timesplitters: Future Perfect were left out in the cold, while Barbie’s Horse Adventure was added to the list. After that, Sony eliminated the ability to play PS2 games in the newer versions of the PS3. Those hoping to enjoy PS2 classics such as Shadow of the Colossus or Persona 4 on their PS3 were outta luck.

So I now find myself contemplating buying a PS3 while everyone else is dreaming of the next generation. It’s not that I don’t want a PS4. Far from it. But there are so many games for the PS3 that I’d like to play, with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle, Persona 5, and The Last of Us all catching my eye. If I were to get a PS4, I might never get to play those games.

By only focusing on the next generation of gaming, it feels as though Sony and Microsoft are doing gamers a disservice. For gamers who want to be able to enjoy the current gen while they wait for the next gen to really take off, they either need to hold onto their current consoles or cross their fingers for cloud gaming.

When cloud gaming does launch, Sony and Microsoft have revealed that only select games will be featured. This means hidden gems for both consoles will more than likely never make it to the next gen, but big titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield all but guaranteed to be offered. Even if a game you want ends up on the cloud, you must then purchase the game again. No matter how much you enjoy a game, paying for it twice is not fun.

Ultimately, it feels as though Sony and Microsoft are shooting themselves in the foot. They’re losing money from customers who don’t want to make the switch to next gen, and they’re denying fans the ability to play their favorite games on their new console.

So while everyone is shelling out for a PS4 and Xbox One, I’ll be enjoying my not-so-new PS3.

Now, I understand the want of trying to take a character or series and branch them off in a new direction, even if just for a single game. Nintendo can seemingly take any of their icons and have them fight each other or play sports together and it’ll sell an ungodly amount of copies. Not all companies should try and follow this formula. Sit back for a second and take in (and try to understand) these ten spin-offs that the world would probably be better off without.

1. Hey You, Pikachu!

I’d like to start off by saying that in theory a game where you can talk to a Pokemon and interact with them and blah blah blah could be great and have tons of potential as a breeding/creature raising game. That being said, the N64 was not the generation to try and do this. Hell, it seems a little absurd that the voice recognition unit that was necessary is only used in two N64 games, and this one is the only one of those two that saw a North America release.

The degree to which you can speak to Pikachu is more or less how in depth you can have a conversation with your bluetooth function in your car. Between the two though I’d have to say bluetooth triumphs since you can at least change your non-Spanish speaking friend’s car settings to Spanish while they’re out of the car.

Pikachu can only respond to a certain number of keywords and he doesn’t give a flying shit about anything else you may have to say to him. Very small children probably had a blast for a while since Pikachu’s vocabulary is probably about as expansive as their own, but if you’re over five years old you’ll lose interest only minutes into this frustrating waste of money (an $80 waste of money thanks to Nintendo’s outrageous price tag).

2. Streetfighter 2010: The Final Fight

Everyone is well aware that the 90’s was a great time to take a fun franchise and butcher it by going in a direction nobody wanted it to go in. Originally released in Japan with a main character named Kevin, Streetfighter 2010: The Final Fight began to trip over itself when the team that brought it over decided that Kevin should actually be Ken Masters from the original classic fighter. If the character had just remained as Kevin, no one would have cared about the terrible story and mediocre gameplay. But someone took a character you enjoyed, bent him over a futuristic rail, and promptly went to town.

Twenty five years after the original Streetfighter, Ken Masters has retired from his fighting career and, logically, moved on to the field of science. He’s developed a superhuman-gift-granting material known as “Cyboplasm” (a name which gives me a headache), which ultimately gets stolen at the same time that his partner, Troy, is murdered. As one would expect, Ken then gives himself a whole bunch of bionic implants and the ability to teleport interdimensionally. Wait? No one expected that? Well that explains why everyone hated this entirely-uncalled-for-futuristic-cyborg-heavy-side-scrolling sequel to what was just a simple, albeit classic and great, fighting game. Let’s move on and pretend this game just wasn’t made.

3. Shadow the Hedgehog

I’m going to go ahead and get talking about this game out of the way so that the rest of this article isn’t saturated with my utter hate for Shadow the Hedgehog. Given, I could devote an entire separate piece to the downfall of the great game series that was Sonic, but I don’t think anyone needs to read any sort of literature laden with such contempt as would flow forth into that piece.

Shadow the Hedgehog came out in 2005, four years after the character’s introduction in Sonic Adventure 2. He was presented as the bad-ass, who-gives-a-shit, rebellious counterpart to our good old friend, Sonic. Presumably, an executive got a little too drunk at a company party and green-lit this project saying, “Sure! A guy that can break the sound barrier should totally have his own game where he uses guns and motorcycles and other cars!” We can all only hope that he was not only fired but continued to suffer from severe depression for bringing forth such a terrible effort to this world.

The game revolves around the whole ambiguity associated with Shadow’s character, in so much that he has the capacity to do both good and evil deeds. While Sonic was a loveable, blue hedgehog who loved chili dogs and brought justice to his world, Shadow apparently has a lot of emotional issues and you’re supposed to sympathize with an evil-super-speed-hedgehog created by a mad scientist. I’m sorry but I feel not sympathy. The only sympathy I feel is for the systems that this game was released for because they’ll always have this shit stain of a game in their back-catalogue. At this point I feel like one of those comedians that brings up something and says, “Hey, you remember that? That was terrible.” But this was terrible. Truly awful.

4. The Typing of the Dead

Moving on from my intense hatred, this next one is more confusing than anything else. Presumably if you’ve ever entered an arcade in America in the last fifteen years you’ve seen a cabinet for House of the Dead. In the vein of similar games such a Time Crisis, the player finds themselves on a set path with the ability to duck out of the way of impending danger and retaliate with a storm of bullets. Simple formula, but incredibly enjoyable.

In 1999, Sega decided to take the gun out of House of the Dead 2 and re-release it with the ability to kill zombies through improved typing speeds. “Wow! What a concept!” Said the single higher-up who had problems typing and got the project rolling. Why the hell is an M-Rated, zombie killing, violence glorifying game aiming for an audience that needs practice typing on a keyboard?

No matter how it came out, despite it’s weird concept, The Typing of the Dead was a fun game, all things considered. I’d still take a regular HotD (Oh my god the abbreviation for this series is Hot D, maybe I shouldn’t abbreviate it again) over this modified version, but it could have been a lot worse. It’s here on this list because, well, you tell me you’re not confused by the concept.

5. Bomberman: Act Zero

Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s a scientific fact that no one has ever said anything good about Bomberman: Act Zero ever. Not a single person. Once a guy thought about saying something good about it but then he didn’t. Because you can’t.

Released in 2006 for the Xbox 360, Act Zero is the annoyingly dark and gritty reboot that absolutely nobody asked for. The game is played in the same top down manner as previous installments, but the levels just come off as ridiculous when you start seeing the crazy neon explosions of the bombs and remember it’s supposed to be taken seriously. If this game had been entirely tongue-in-cheek, maybe I’d have something good to say about it. But I don’t. I have less to say about this than the others because you can finally sum it up in four words, “It was pretty awful.”

Deep Cutz highlights great video game music that you should check out!

When you think “Game starring acrobatic janitors fighting to rid the world of dust,” you probably wouldn’t think quiet, down tempo 80’s inspired electronica would be an appropriate soundtrack. And yet Dustforce has a phenomenal soundtrack that perfectly compliments the action on screen.

The world of Dustforce is a bleak one; everything is caked in filth, and beauty has all but vanished from the world. The soundtrack is appropriately melancholy to match this setting, quite and beautiful, but also reserved and at times contemplative.

Composed by a musician calling himself Lifeformed, the soundtrack of Dustforce is not only a great soundtrack, it’s a great album period. I highly recommend it, and you can check it out at the artists’ bandcamp.

Today in “Announcements No One Expected To Ever Fucking Happen,” a Toronto-based game studio known as Finish Line Games revealed that they would be porting obscure car combat game Cel Damage to the Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and Playstation Vita in stunning HD. Released for the Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox all the way back in 2002, Cel Damage was a cel shaded car combat game set in the world of cartoons, essentially making it Tom and Jerry meets Twisted Metal, which is awesome. Despite the fantastic concept and fun gameplay, the game didn’t make a splash and faded into obscurity. Unfortunately, this is a fate that befell many great car combat games, mostly due to the fact that everyone stuck to the Twisted Metal franchise. So, strap in, because today we’ll be looking back at some of the greatest car combat games that aren’t Twisted Metal.

5. Blood Drive

Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Starting off our list is a pretty recent title by the name of Blood Drive. No, this isn’t the kind of blood drive where you get a cookie and orange juice afterwards. This Blood Drive is a game show set in a world decimated by a zombie apocalypse, where contestants hop into cars and blow the competition to smithereens, all while splattering zombies to gain extra points. When contestants aren’t smushing the undead under their tires, there’s plenty of weapons scattered around the field to pick up, including missiles, flamethrowers, and saw blades. Characters such as a Vegas crooner, a psycho ambulance driver, and a post-apocalyptic Fred Durst look-alike zoom around the battlefield, vying for kills and points.

What keeps Blood Drive from being a truly great game is it’s lack of local multiplayer. A car combat game that doesn’t let you sit on your couch and blow up your friends is hardly a car combat game at all. But it’s a fun game all the same, and you should definitely take it for a spin sometime.

4. WWE Crush Hour

Playstation 2, Gamecube

There’s weird concepts, and then there’s WWE Crush Hour. Someone somewhere thought “Wow, pro wrestling sure is great. But it would be even better if we took wrestlers, put them in giant cars with machine guns strapped to the hood, and made them fight to the death,” and thus WWE Crush Hour was born. With a tongue in cheek storyline dealing with Vince McMahon purchasing all of media and needing shows starring the WWE superstarts to fill the airtime, it’s nice that WWE Crush Hour doesn’t take itself terribly seriously. Featuring a roster of over 30 wrestlers, WWE Crush Hour allows you to finally find out who would win in a fight between Hulk Hogan and Jeff Hardy if they were in monster trucks. To make things even better, the whole thing is commentated by Jim Ross.

WWE Crush Hour isn’t the best car combat game by any means, but it’s ridiculous premise alone makes it worth a play. Besides, if you don’t want to play a game where Ric Flair drives a car with a giant “WOO!” on the front bumper, I don’t think we can be friends.

3. Star Wars: Demolition

Dreamcast, Playstation

Sure, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to pit a man riding a Rancor against Darth Maul on a swoop bike, but it didn’t really matter. Star Wars: Demolition was a Star Wars dorks dream come true, plucking characters from all over the galaxy, shoving them into various vehicles, and making them blow each other up. The game had a flimsy story to explain this odd turn of events: Podracing has been banned by the powers that be, so notorious slug gangster Jabba the Hutt sets up an illegal battle arena to attract high-stakes gamblers. Combatants are sent to a variety of planets such as Hoth and Naboo to destroy the competition and blow up the locals. Using the vast world of Star Wars to it’s advantage, each stage is littered with hazards, such as Sarlacc pits and rogue Tie Fighters. Weapons such as concussion missiles and thermal detonators are scattered about the levels, and each vehicle has a unique special weapon, such as Darth Maul’s double-bladed lightsaber or Boba Fett’s disintegrator rockets.

Star Wars: Demolition is a complete cash-in on the car combat craze that was big at the time, but it managed to be a fun game despite it’s absolutely ridiculous concept. It definitely warrants a play for fans and non-fans alike.

2. Vigilante 8: Second Offense

Playstation, Dreamcast, N64

The original Vigilante 8 was a run-of-the-mill car combat game set during the 70’s, pitting two teams of outlaws, the Coyotes and the Vigilantes, against each other in a fight for domination. It was pretty forgettable, but for the sequel, the makers of the game decided to fix the gameplay and make the story batshit insane. Vigilante 8: Second Offense finds the characters from the first game fighting outlaws from the far flung future, who have traveled back in time to kill the leader of the Vigilantes to ensure they will rule the world. Add in cowboy robots, a Shaft rip-off, a space chimp, and a Jackson 5-esque motorcycle squad, and you have Vigilante 8: Second Offense. The game had plenty of crazy weapons to pick up and buildings to destroy, but it also added the ability to pick up car modifiers that allowed you to drive on water or fly. This added a whole new aspect to the combat, allowing you to pick up propellers and escape into the water when running from an enemy.

Vigilante 8: Second Offense has gone on to acquire a cult following, with many remembering the game fondly. A sequel was eventually made for Xbox Live, but it couldn’t match up to the second game’s craziness. If you ever want to have a great time, just grab three friends, pile onto the couch, pop in Vigilante 8: Second Offense, and have hours of fun blowing each other to smithereens.

1. Rouge Trip: Vacation 2012

Playstation

Rouge Trip: Vacation 2012 is like someone took everything I loved in my early teens, shoved it in onto one convenient package, and released it for the Playstation.With a soundtrack provided by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, bizarre characters such as a fat Elvis impersonator and a homicidal Weinermobile driver, and gameplay that emphasized blowing everything up, Rouge Trip: Vacation 2012 was one of my favorite games back in the day. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where vacations are a luxury only obtainable by the obscenely wealthy, Rouge Trip casts you as an auto-mercenary who must fight it out with other combatants to take tourists to various landmarks in order to earn cash. This leads to frantic fights where you must battle for the tourists while also ensuring that your enemies meet a painful death. The game is absolutely ridiculous, and makes no attempt to take itself seriously.

Rouge Trip: Vacation 2012 had plenty of potential for a new series, but unfortunately the game faded into obscurity. I highly recommend seeking out a copy of the game and giving it a play. You won’t be disappointed.

Kickstart This Shit, Internet! is a weekly article spotlighting great games on Kickstarter that haven’t hit their funding yet

Shaq-Fu, the critically reviled fighting game starring everyone’s basketball player/rappin’ genie/terrible rapper Shaquille O’ Neal, is returning. Truly, the end times are nigh. But what makes this weird announcement all the weirder is that the game sounds pretty awesome.

Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn is less of a sequel and more of a spiritual successor. Sure, it shares it’s name with the notoriously terrible fighting game, but Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn is a totally different game. Gone are the days of Shaq fighting generic mummies and cat girls; in it’s place is a brawler that pits the former Laker center against hordes of ninjas. Shaq Diesel can be equipped with plenty of combos and killer special moves, with names such as the Shaqwave and the Big Daddy O. Shaq also has a menagerie of weapons he can get his giant mitts on, including katanas, shurikens, and basketballs.

A game this ridiculous is best enjoyed with a friend, so Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn allows you to take on the bad guys in co-op. Both players take control of a Shaq, who can be upgraded and outfitted however the player wants. Have you ever dreamed of playing as a Shaq that specializes in grappling that’s outfitted in stunner shades and a neon green suit? Well, that’s pretty specific, but Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn can make it happen

Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn promises a game that is one part Final Fight, one part Devil May Cry, starring the one and only Shaquille O’ Neal. Bizarre? You bet. But it sounds promising, and they’ve definitely got my money.